Hillsborough Moves Forward With $70 Million Indoor Sports Complex at MOSI
- Jul 3
- 3 min read
TAMPA, FL — Hillsborough County is one step closer to breaking ground on a massive indoor sports complex at the Museum of Science & Innovation campus in north Tampa, with commissioners voting 7-0 on June 17 to let the Tampa Sports Authority begin negotiating a construction contract with Suffolk Construction.
What's Being Built
The 178,000-square-foot indoor field house will include 12 courts for basketball, volleyball, and other sporting events, built next to the museum through a renovated portion of the former main entrance that county officials are calling "The Hub." County documents also call for roughly 46,000 square feet of repairs and renovations to the adjoining MOSI West building.
Not a MOSI Project
MOSI President and CEO John Smith has pushed back on a common misconception about the project. "MOSI's not getting $70 million, and MOSI's not running a sports facility," Smith said. The land and buildings on the 73-acre campus are owned by Hillsborough County, and the county is redeveloping the property with MOSI as the anchor tenant — not the operator of the new venue.
The Bigger Vision
The field house is the centerpiece of a much larger $2 billion mixed-use redevelopment planned for the county-owned property surrounding MOSI. County leaders have talked about adding a hotel, restaurants, entertainment uses, a black box theater, a film studio, and even a future ice rink to round out what Commissioner Ken Hagan calls an "entertainment wing." The site sits directly across from USF, where a new football stadium and golf course redevelopment are already underway.
"Today's fieldhouse agenda item is the catalyst that will accelerate the $2 billion MOSI redevelopment project," Hagan said. "This transformative project, along with USF's golf course redevelopment and new stadium, will completely redefine USF's campus and surrounding area."
The Money Behind It
The $70 million price tag will be funded with $5 million in countywide funds and $65 million from the renewed community investment tax — not MOSI's operating budget. Officials point to the county's existing Tournament SportsPlex of Tampa Bay on Columbus Drive as the financial model: that facility generated roughly $2.8 million in bed tax revenue in 2025 and became operationally self-sustaining within a few years of opening. The MOSI field house is projected to reach about 44,000 hotel room nights by year three and break even on operations by its second or third year.
Building on MOSI's campus instead of a standalone site elsewhere is also expected to save the county roughly $15 million.
What's Next
The June 17 vote authorizes contract negotiations only — it does not finalize construction funding. The guaranteed maximum price, funding request, and interlocal agreement with the Sports Authority still have to come back before the County Commission. A firmer timeline is expected around August, when rezoning with the City of Tampa is set to conclude. If the project stays on track, construction is targeted for late fall with an 18-month buildout, pointing to a summer 2028 opening.
The timing overlaps with MOSI's own plans to bring "Sue the T-Rex" — an exhibit on loan from Chicago's Field Museum — to Tampa in January 2027, meaning construction crews and one of the museum's biggest exhibits in over a decade will be sharing the campus at the same time.
📍 MOSI campus, 4801 E Fowler Ave, Tampa, FL 33617
📅 Commission vote: June 17, 2026 | Construction targeted late fall 2026 | Opening targeted summer 2028
